Debra Brown | Wednesday August 29th 2018

If Gillum, a Bernie Sanders-backed progressive, wins in November he’ll be the first African American to lead the state. Gillum will go against conservative Rep. Ron DeSantis, who has the backing of the president.

In Congress, DeSantis is a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, a far-right group. Gillum was the only non-millionaire candidate and the only supporter of “Medicare for all” single-payer health care.

Former police officer Roy Oliver in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs was found guilty of murder in the shooting of Jordan Edwards, an unarmed teen who was a passenger in a car that had left a party.

Edwards and four others were driving away from a house party in April 2017 after reportedly hearing shots. Jordan, a standout athlete at Mesquite High School near Dallas, died from a fatal gunshot wound to the head, the Dallas County medical examiner’s office said.

Federal judges affirmed their earlier decision ruling North Carolina’s congressional districts as unconstitutional because Republicans drew them with excessive partisanship.

Acting under an order of the U.S. Supreme Court to re-examine the case, the three-judge panel ruled again in favor of election advocacy groups and Democrats who had sued to challenge the boundaries drawn in 2016. The map was redrawn in 2016 because other federal courts determined two districts originally drawn in 2011 were illegal because of excessive racial bias.

California will become the first state in the nation to abolish bail for suspects awaiting trial under a sweeping reform bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. In his 1979 State of the State Address, Brown argued the existing process was biased, favoring the wealthy who can afford to pay for their freedom, and penalizing the poor, who often are forced to remain in custody.

California legislators voted to require that 100 percent of the state’s electricity come from carbon-free sources. The bill gives the state until 2045 to meet the goal. California had already imposed a mandate to generate 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

Defense Distributed, based in Austin, Texas, will send 3D-printable guns plans directly to customers, its founder Cody Wilson said. Wilson said his company will mail USB drives to customers, who can pay whatever they want. By the end of the event, Wilson said he had already received more than 400 orders.

While on a three-day tour of the continent, May pledged 4 billion pounds ($5.1 billion) of support for African markets. May’s goal of deepening trade ties with Africa, the world’s second most populous continent, comes ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union next year.

Britain’s post-Brexit goal is to “strengthen its global partnerships,” May said in a statement. May said the U.K. will treat African nations as “equal partners” and help British companies boost trade with countries such as Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal.